If you commute from West of the city using the Pike, it seems that your drive to Boston could get shorter, well kind of. The now-shuttered rail yards at the Allston/Brighton exit is the focus of an undertaking that aims to straighten the Mass. Pike roadway in that area.

According to coverage from The Boston Globe, “the state Department of Transportation project is simple: Rebuild Allston’s section of the Massachusetts Turnpike to make it less curvy, allowing for cars to travel through new, all-electronic toll plazas without slowing.,,But the $260 million construction project, scheduled to begin in 2017, has attracted the hopes and dreams of transit activists, business bigwigs, and leaders from around the region, all of whom believe the project, and the 60 acres of land to be opened up by the highway straightening, has the potential to dramatically redefine Allston-Brighton.”